Afflicted Moon and remedy

Moon represents the mind, emotions, mother, motherland, heart, chest, breasts and lungs. Weak Moon may adversely affect any of these things in life. The type of affliction will determine the remedies for that affliction.

Moon afflicted by Mars causes an excessively hot and quarrelsome temperament, jealousy, hyper competitiveness, rough speech etc. In this case, one should try to calm down one's nature. Every time you feel the surge of anger, count up till ten, , take five deep breaths and so on before doing or saying anything to anyone. The idea is to calm down as much as you can. Meditation, Yoga and other spiritual practices may help.

Moon afflicted by Rahu causes excessive anxiety, fear of the dark and the unknown, addictions to gambling, drinking etc., bad company, sudden misfortunes, being robbed, mysterious illnesses which are difficult to diagnose, and mental imbalance in extreme cases. Worshipping Lord Shiva, chanting Om Namah Shivaya regularly, keeping good company, reading soul elevating books like Bhagavad Gita, self help books etc. are of great help. The idea is to eliminate the different illusions of false happiness that Rahu may cause one to believe in by afflicting the Moon. Regular meditation is of great help in this case too. Deep meditation helps us to see through all the tricks and deceptions of the Rahu (illusion) principle.

Moon afflicted by Saturn causes excessive dogmatism, pessimistic approach towards everything, risk averse nature, tendency to brood over sad events of the past, and depression in extreme cases. Trying to cultivate an optimistic approach in life, practicing the art of accepting people in our lives as they are, developing listening skills, cultivating empathy, trying to broaden our outlook by travelling to different countries with different cultures, developing multiple perspectives towards any issue, and other similar approaches are the real life solutions for Saturn's affliction to Moon.

Moon afflicted by Ketu causes social awkwardness with a lack of tactfulness and diplomacy, extreme behaviour based on one's whims and fancies which may be unreasonable or unrealistic, stubbornness etc. Some of the fundamentalists, terrorists and extremists have a Moon afflicted by Ketu. Trying to become broad minded by becoming aware of different perspectives of different cultures towards different aspects of life may help a great deal in softening the effects of this affliction. Reading the commentaries of Bhagavad Gita by great saints is of great help in such cases as doing so helps us to develop true wisdom and compassion in our hearts. Compassion is the quality which is needed when Ketu afflicts Moon.

. a weak Moon can be helped by chanting the beej mantra for the Moon as well as Saturn and Jupiter. You can find it easily on the net by googling for it.

Why Saturn and Jupiter too apart from the Moon may be the question that arises in your mind. Here are the reasons.

As you may have noticed, many of the traditional astrological remedies suggested for a weak Moon are related to worship of Lord Shiva or the shivalinga on Mondays. What is Moon's connection with Lord Shiva or shivalinga? You will notice that Lord Shiva holds the crescent Moon in his hair in traditional symbology. Lord Shiva is the ideal husband for the Moon (the eternal feminine symbolized as the Goddess Parvati). It is so because Lord Shiva stands for spiritual perfection, asceticism, total control over all the imperfections of the mind (Moon) symbolized by the docile snakes playing around his neck, his ability to transmute the poison (bitterness given by the world) by holding it in his throat (it represents tremendous self control). In Indian mythology, the goddesses symbolize the Mind and it's qualities, and the Gods symbolize the Spirit or Consciousness. Goddess Parvati symbolizes a true spiritual seeker who seeks enlightenment (marry Lord Shiva or the God depicted as a perfect ascetic in the Indian mythological lore) at all costs.

Saturn is the planet, which when strong, helps us to attain all these qualities that Lord Shiva represents. That is why we worship Saturn or Lord Shiva to strengthen a weak Moon. The Goddess (Moon) can attain perfection only by marrying Lord Shiva (the highest qualities of the planet Saturn). The mythological stories give subtle hints about relationships between different aspects of life. They can also be visualized in terms of relationships between the different planets and their qualities.

Saturn represents discipline, following certain moral and spiritual principles rigorously, untiring efforts to purify one's mind, justice, integrity and self control. These are the very qualities which are damaged by a weak Moon because a weak Moon gives one a weak, vacillating, indecisive, moody, whimsical, heavily biased and erratic mind. So, worshipping Saturn and Lord Shiva helps as they represent all those qualities of a strong Saturn that act as an antidote to the weaknesses of the mind (Moon) explained above.

Jupiter represents wisdom, calmness, serenity, highest ethical standards and good luck. If we could develop these qualities, then automatically we come out of the problems caused by the emotional immaturity that a weak or afflicted Moon causes. That is why it was advised to worship Jupiter too along with Saturn and Moon to strengthen one's Moon.

But the best method to strengthen the weak Moon in one's horoscope is to directly do ‘the work' which will elevate one's mental-emotional-spiritual maturity. Here 'the work' refers to the work of working on our mind (as Moon represents the Mind). It is our mind which interprets the events that happen in our lives. It is the quality of our mind (Moon) which determines whether we live happily and wisely or miserably and foolishly.

So, working to cultivate patience, discipline, self control, mental purity and a systematic lifestyle directly helps to strengthen the weak Moon of our horoscope. So does working to cultivate wisdom by reading great books which can help us to understand life much more deeply. When we understand life, we naturally strengthen our mind or Moon, as it is with the mind (Moon) only that we absorb this wisdom. More we cultivate wisdom & peace (Jupiter) and contentment & discipline (Saturn), more our Moon (mind) gains strength.